Happy Birthday
by Rinilex
Summary: One Shot. Zelos isn't one for facing his birthdays, and tries to rope Lloyd into drowning his troubles at the bar. It doesn't quite go how he planned it. [Zelloyd Friendship] [Fluff]


One shot. It's been a while since I've done a ToS fic... I guess it reflects my own life lately. Hope you enjoy it, and if you do, please R&R.

* * *

"So… why are we here again?"

Two young men stood on a bridge by a brightly lit casino, their faces illuminated by the flashing neon sign above its doors. It was a little after seven at night, and the evening crowd were slowly appearing in small groups, dressed in gaudy attire and chattering excitedly amongst themselves. The more dignified crowd passed by with looks of disdain on their faces as they made their way to the decidedly more proper amphitheare that was gearing up for its first performance of the night.

"Y'know… just… hangin' out," Zelos replied absent-mindedly, his gaze following a particularly pretty young woman in a velvet dress that revealed the tops of her porcelain shoulders as she walked by.

Lloyd frowned, completely oblivious. "But I thought you said we were gonna get some food for Genis to make dinner…"

"Oh. Yeah. That. We'll do that later," Zelos replied flippantly. "I just thought you and I could… y'know… spend some quality time together. Having some _fun_."

"…Uh-oh."

"What?"

"Professor Sage said whenever you get that look on your face, you're thinking about… uh… debo… deborch… er…"

"Don't hurt yourself now."

Lloyd went red. "You know what I mean! It means you're being… you!"

Zelos tried his best to look offended. It didn't fool anyone. "Hey, what's that supposed to mean? I just wanted to spend some time with my bud, that's all!" He paused. "Well, maybe with… y'know, some girls or something, if circumstances permit…" he added innocently.

"Girls?" Lloyd asked, puzzled. "Then why don't we just go get Colette and the others?"

"Oh, but… they've been working so hard recently," said Zelos quickly. "I think they deserve just to have some girl time together." _And I'd have more chance scoring with Regal_, he thought to himself. "Besides, I was thinking about some girls that were a bit more… chilled out. So we can have some… fun."

That look was back on Zelos' face again, but Lloyd had already forgotten the word and couldn't get what the Chosen was trying to tell him as he punctuated every other word with raised eyebrows.

"Fun? Like… hide and seek or something?"

Zelos stared at him flatly.

"W-What? Don't look at me like that!"

"I can't believe you're 17," he said, shaking his head. "What the hell do you even do in Iselia when you want to have fun?"

Lloyd scratched his head. "Y'know. Play tag. Hide and seek. Sometimes we go to the fields an-"

"No no no. I mean, like, when you like a girl, right? And you want to have some _fun_ with her? What do you _do_?" he asked, emphasising the word "fun" so much it now had two extra syllables.

Lloyd's face brightened up. "Oh!"

"Yeah?"

"Well, I used to take Colette to the river behind my dad's house…"

"Yeahhhh…?"

"And we'd go fishing!"

Zelos slumped against the side of the bridge, his hand on his face.

"You've gotta be kidding me."

"What?" Lloyd asked, his face growing pink again. "Are you making fun of me? I don't know what you're getting at, but-"

A thought suddenly hit the Chosen, and he straightened up, a big grin stretching across his face. "No, no, not at all, my dear bumpkin." He slung an arm around Lloyd's neck. "Hey, you may have led a sheltered life until this point, but do not fear. The great Zelos shall show you the way!"

Striking a dramatic pose, he flamboyantly gestured towards the casino, where there were now hordes of girls piling in through the entrance, wearing considerably less than their theatre-attending counterparts.

Lloyd wrinkled his nose, his face squished involuntarily against Zelos' chest. "…you smell like potion," he complained, his voice muffled.

Zelos ignored him. "Tonight, I shall show you the art of seduction! Tonight, you shall be… my wing-man!"

"Woah, woah, wai-!"

His arm still tightly around Lloyd's neck, he pulled the two of them towards the casino's doors amidst the high-pitched squeals of "It's Master Zelos! The Chosen is here!"

"Hang on - Zelos - _wait_!"

Zelos paused impatiently, momentarily relinquishing his hold.

"What is it?"

"What's a wing-man?"

"…Lloyd, this is just getting depressing."

* * *

Somewhere in the distance, a clock chimed three times as the casino doors flung open and two of its patrons left. A straggle of girls in bunny-girl uniforms and low-cut dresses bid them goodbye at the entrance, giggling. Lloyd waved back enthusiastically.

"See ya later!" he called, and the girls all tittered, waving their hands coquettishly.

Zelos, a dark look on his face, stormed away without a backwards glance.

"Hey, Zelos, I totally get what you mean! That was really fun!" Lloyd said happily, after having jogged to catch up with the moody Chosen on the now quiet bridge.

Zelos came to a sudden halt. "Fun? FUN? You call THAT fun?" he snapped, his tousled red hair flying in his face as he rounded on Lloyd. "That was the OPPOSITE of the fun I had in mind!"

Lloyd looked at him, puzzled. "What are you talking about? That was loads of fun! Those girls were really nice!"

"Yeah, and I had those girls in the palm of my hand, but then Mr Back Country Hick has to come along and tell them bumpkin stories about his charming country life in boondock village, making them start going on about visiting their families back home and getting all emotional - for _three_ hours!"

He flopped down on the sidewalk, the distinct scent of potion far stronger than earlier. His outburst was causing his temper to lose steam, and he was beginning to look dejected. "That's not what the point of tonight was!"

"Oh… sorry…" Lloyd murmured awkwardly. There was a pause. "Then, what was the point of tonight?"

"Just… forget about it," Zelos muttered, wiping a hand down his face. For a split second, a pained expression flitted across his face, and Lloyd's eyes widened, before he quickly put on a plastic smile and looked up. "I mean, hey, it's no big deal. We've figured it out now, right? Your style's a little different to mine, but it's gold for getting chicks' attention. Now we just-"

"Zelos." Lloyd sat himself down on the bridge next to him, trying to ignore the cold pavement on the backs of his legs. "What's wrong?"

Something in the tone of Lloyd's voice stopped him abruptly, and he couldn't help looking away. "Wh-what do you mean?" he said, trying to be non-chalant.

"You've been acting weird all day. You went off by yourself all morning. When you came back you went to your room without talking to anyone, and you even snapped at the Professor. And tonight you've been acting way more… uh… over the top than normal. What's the matter?"

Though he tried his best to smile, the expression on Zelos' face looked more like a grimace. "Wh-what are you talking about? I'm fine. Doesn't everyone have a bad day once in a while?"

"Not you," Lloyd answered bluntly, and Zelos flinched.

_How does he know?_

He opened his mouth to answer, but as he did, a single snowflake fell down from the cold November sky. It slowly descended towards the ground, floating lazily on the wind, before landing on the toe of Zelos' boot. He scrunched his face up.

That did it.

"It's my... birthday today," he said in a rush, and there was a mixture of relief and dread in his stomach as the words he'd been battling inwardly with for a week came tumbling out.

Lloyd started, shocked. "What?! Why didn't you say anything?!"

He shrugged. "It's… not a big deal."

"Of course it is! It's a huge deal! It's your birthday!" Lloyd said heatedly. "I haven't got you a present or - or a cake or organised something or-"

"Lloyd! It's fine, man, seriously."

Zelos looked up to the sky, where other flecks of white had started tumbling down from the grey. He felt like he was 10 years old again. Strange what special occasions could do to you.

"It's always been like this. I just don't like making a big deal about my birthday. That's all."

"'Always like this'? You never celebrate your birthday?" asked Lloyd, incredulous.

Letting out a sigh, Zelos drew his knees up to his chest. "Well, no. When I was a kid, I had to. It was big deal, y'know? The Chosen's Birthday, come one and all…" he trailed off, a bitter smile on his face. "You had to make a big deal of it. The kids of half the aristocrats in Meltokio would come. There'd be a big dinner party for hundreds of people, dancing, a cake three feet tall… all to celebrate me… being born. What a great day for everyone _that_ was."

Lloyd looked at his feet. "Well… that's true, right? Your friends must have been happy? Your… family…" his words slowly faded as he began to remember what Zelos has told him in Flanoir. A snowflake landed on his nose.

Zelos let out a snort. "If you could call people I'd never met "friends." I didn't know half the kids who came to that party. The others were polite to me because… I am the Chosen, but they all kept their distance. I didn't have any real friends then. And my parents never even showed up."

Lloyd stared at him, thunderstruck. Memories of all his birthdays in Iselia came flooding back to him… memories of days with Colette and Genis, and his friends from school, of Dirk waking him up every birthday morning with something he'd made him that Lloyd knew he'd been hiding crafting for weeks… the year that Raine tried to bake the cake and nearly set the house on fire… the year they played dress-up and the time they went on an adventure in the forest… it had never been big or fancy or organised, but he couldn't remember a time he hadn't felt… loved.

"They… didn't even show up? But…"

"Nah. Mother always had something wrong… usually a headache." He flicked a piece of gravel off his shoe to try and distract himself from the lump at the back of his throat. "I remember my seventh birthday when I came back early from the party… she said she'd had to stay lying down all day because of a migraine. She didn't manage to hide the gramophone in time, though. Or the man she'd been dancing with."

"My father didn't even bother pretending. He'd be off with his mistress, going around Sybak or something. Well. You know how things can be. Busy."

There was something so forced about his casual tone it almost hurt Lloyd to hear it.

"But… still!" Lloyd protested, that same old determined look on his face in front of injustice. Zelos allowed himself a small smile. "They're your parents! They should be there! A parent should always be there for their kid! They should be… happy…"

Zelos shook his head. "Heh. You remember what I told you, right? Neither of them were happy. I was the product of an arranged marriage, solely for the benefit of the mana lineage."

"They didn't want to celebrate a kid that they were taken away from the people they wanted to be with for. Guess I can't blame them."

"Zelos…"

Silence fell between them again as Lloyd struggled to find what to say.

"But then… who organised it?" he said suddenly, his face brightening up. They must have at least-"

"Sebastian. He did most of it. But he stopped when I got older, and I didn't even bother showing up for the last three or four. I just… hated it. It felt like a total joke. There wasn't any meaning in it. So instead of celebrating it, every birthday, I've just gone out on my own and had some… fun to take my mind off it ever since."

"It shouldn't be celebrated. I… shouldn't have been born, after all," he said quietly, his mother's voice resounding in his mind.

"But…" Lloyd shook his head. "You don't… really still believe that, do you?"

"No." Zelos paused, a crease in his brow. "Yeah. Maybe. I don't know. Your simple-minded ways have definitely rubbed off on me…"

"Hey!"

"It's a compliment, bud. They've rubbed off on me. All that "you can live how you want" stuff, but… birthdays are still a sore spot, I guess. It's okay for me to be alive and junk, but I don't think there's much to celebrate about be being here and all."

There was a long silence. The snow was beginning to pile up thinly on the floor, and the two of them were still sat on the ground, with just the thin fabric of their capes shielding them from the freezing concrete. Neither noticed. Zelos picked at the tiny flakes with a gloved finger irritably, their soft white permanently dyed with red and regret in his mind's eye. Lloyd was staring straight ahead, brow furrowed, like he was trying to figure something out.

A clumsy drunk and his weary-looking wife passed by them, the latter trying to guide her inebriated husband back to the hotel, and as her embarrassed, quiet hushes died away, they found themselves in silence again. Zelos was about to recommend they start making their own way back before Lloyd spoke up.

"I think… there's a lot to celebrate about it."

Zelos gave a cold laugh. "Yeah? Like what? I've been nothing but a pain in the ass to everyone since I've been born. My little sister got locked up. My parents hated me. Everyone around me either thought I was a weirdo or only got close to me to get something. I'm a joke who can't be taken seriously. The pervert. The idiot who never should have been a Chosen. "What's Zelos gone and done this time?" "That stupid Chosen…" On this journey, even now, I…" He stopped, mortified to find his voice was cracking. He balled his fists together and looked away, hoping it hadn't been noticed.

But instead, to his surprise, Lloyd sighed. "Geez, Zelos. I thought you were meant to be smart underneath it all…"

_That_ threw him off guard.

"Wh-what? What are you talking about?" he stammered, in one of the few moments of his life where his carefully maintained act of confidence slipped.

Lloyd readjusted himself, pulling his cape tighter around his shoulders and drawing his knees to his chest like Zelos had done. "Well, I guess I can't say much for your parents… except parents aren't always right, y'know? I think… I think the words and actions of your parents have a huge impact on you and what you think about yourself… and it's easy to say 'don't listen to them', but every kid does it. Every kid wants to be accepted by the people who should love them, right? "

He looked up to the sky.

"But even they can be wrong. Your parents were wrong, Zelos. Your mom was wrong. I don't know who she was or what kind of life she had, and maybe she had it hard, but I think it was selfish of her to say that to you. To treat you the way she did. That was her weakness. Not you. It wasn't your fault, Zelos, what happened to her. Or Seles. And what she said… just isn't true."

Beside him, Zelos looked silently at the floor, his blue eyes wide, just barely managing to hide the fact his body was trembling. He didn't speak. He couldn't. Every word this guy was saying felt like it was hitting an exposed wound he didn't even realise existed and went right through him.

A single drop of water fell onto the concrete in front of him, though it was still snowing.

Lloyd hadn't noticed.

"None of the guys think you're a joke or bad or stupid or anything like that. Whenever we say stuff like that… when Sheena gets mad, or Presea corrects you, or Genis acts all annoyed… it's really because… we're actually happy. We're happy you're you, Zelos. We like you being that way. Yeah, you goof off a lot, and joke around… but it's because you're that way that we like you. You're like a sun, y'know? You don't take stuff seriously sometimes, but that's when things seem sad, or hopeless… when one of us is down… you make everything seem bright again. You cheer everyone up. You make things fun. If you weren't here… it wouldn't be the same at all."

Zelos stared very hard at a spot on the ground, his eyes burning. He had to. He had to, or…

"There's meaning in every life. Maybe that's why you're here. You should have been born. To meet us."

_Don't._

I'm really glad I met you, Zelos."

_No. Don't. Stop it, you god damn hick, I'll…_

"And I'm really happy you were born, because of that.

I'm really glad… you're here."

His gaze still fixed on the floor, trying his best to hide his screwed up eyes and wet cheeks beneath locks of red hair, Zelos let out a small cough to disguise a sob as his shoulders shook. Lloyd wordlessly shuffled closer to his friend beneath the falling snow, and gently placed a gloved hand on his arm as more droplets of water appeared on the ground beneath his hidden face.

"L-look, I-I'm… not… i-it's the… potion…" he said thickly, his voice trembling.

_I'm glad you're here._

His body heaved with another sob he didn't even try to hide, and Zelos rested his head in his arms, crying.

* * *

The sky was turning its pre-dawn, misty blue when Sheena appeared at the foot of the bridge, wrapped up warmly in a thick coat and looking worried. She spotted two lone, familiar figures sat resting against the railing a few metres away, and her misty sigh of relief lingered in the air behind her as she ran towards them, calling, "I've found them!"

The last few flakes of snow were drifting towards the earth as she came to a halt in front of the two, flecks of white visible in her black hair. "Where on _earth _have you been?! We've been looking for…"

She stopped. Lloyd was blinking up at her, his eyes bleary. One arm rested across his stomach, and the other was around the shoulders of a passed out Zelos sat beside him, his chin resting heavily on Lloyd's shoulder. Her expression softened a little.

"Sheena? What…?" he said groggily, confused, before the bridge and the weight on his left suddenly reminded him of what happened. "Sheena! I'm sorry! We were meant to get stuff for dinner, and…"

"I know! What happened to you guys?" she asked, before noticing the caisno nearby. "Don't tell me this guy-"

Lloyd shook his head quickly. "N-no, it was me. It was my fault. I… uh… I wanted to know what it was like here at night and got Zelos to show me. Honestly. He just wanted to get back."

Sheena eyed the unconscious Chosen suspiciously, but shrugged. "Well, as long as you're both safe. Just don't pull a stunt like that again, Genis was going crazy… I'll let you off this time, though. It is this guy's birthday, after all."

Zelos stirred and made a strange sound, but his eyes remained shut. Lloyd gaped at her. "You _knew_?!"

Sheena nodded. "Yeah! No thanks to Zelos… Regal noticed he was acting strange yesterday and remembered it was his birthday around this time of year. He used to go to his birthday parties as a kid…"

"…so he'd know," Lloyd finished, and sighed. "I can't believe it."

"Yup. Well, the group's been going crazy all morning. I said I'd go look for you while everyone else stayed behind to get it all ready."

He blinked. "Get what ready?"

"The birthday preparations, of course! It's last minute, because of this Chosen guy," she said in a mock-scolding tone, playfully nudging his leg with her foot. "But we'll get it done. Colette went out with Raine and Presea to get the presents, and Genis agreed to help Regal with the cake once I said I'd go look for you. _No_ dirty stuff, though."

"But that's… half the fun…" Zelos murmured sleepily, making both of them jump.

"Well… since you're both okay, I'll go back and give them the head's up before Genis sends out an official search party. Wake this guy up, will you?" she said, before setting off on a run back down the bridge.

As the sound of her footsteps disappeared, Lloyd began to sit up properly, his back aching after a few hours of being leant against the awkward bridge railings. Zelos slowly lifted his head up, wincing, before clasping his forehead in his heads.

"Urgh."

"Feeling those potions, huh?" asked Lloyd with a grin, and he groaned in response.

"I was wrong. You've got it right. Do the bumpkin thing. Live on water and wheatgrass juice…"

"I thought I told you to stop calling me bumpkin," Lloyd said, but he was still smiling. "Hey, so… you're… okay, now?"

Zelos knew he wasn't talking about his head. "Oh. Yeah. Yeah, I… sorry about that."

"Don't worry about it."

"Look, if you could… I mean, if the others-"

"I won't say anything. I promise."

"…thanks." Zelos straightened up, stretching his arms. "Wouldn't want to ruin my image, you know? Those chicks rely on me to be the man around here… it'd be bad if they found out about my… getting drunk and everything. It's not a good look."

"Sure, sure. Whatever you say."

"Good."

Zelos paused for a minute, fidgeting with a piece of thread on his glove. Then:

"Lloyd…"

"Yeah?"

He took a deep breath, and looked up. "Thank you."

"No problem."

They exchanged a smile, and a few minutes of quiet passed between them. Eventually, Lloyd turned his head back toward the railway. "So… I guess you heard all that just now. Looks like you're getting a birthday whether you want it or not."

"It seems so." Zelos pretended to look long-suffering. "Well, it doesn't do much for me, but if it'll make them happy… who am I to let my hunnies down if they want to celebrate Zelos? You can't blame them."

"Guess not," said Lloyd, rolling his eyes. "Oh, wait, I forgot!"

"What?"

Lloyd cleared his throat, and with a big grin, spread his arms out wide. "Happy Birthday, Zelos!"

For the first time in his life, it felt good to hear those words. Zelos laughed, and the last few flakes of snow in his hair fell to the ground and vanished.

"Hey, y'know what? I think it might be."


End file.
